Saturday, February 16, 2019

This week we are giving science a break and heading to the movies in honor of the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival, an epic event that has taken place in our region since 2003.

We explore some of the famous films that were shot around the canyons and buttes, rivers and towns of the Colorado Plateau, and also spotlight some of the future filmmakers of our region. Students at the Star School, an off the grid elementary/middle school in northern Arizona write, direct and produce their own short films on everything from alternative power to storytelling and traditional practices.

Our wonderful guests this week are Dr. John Tveten, the Executive Director of the Mountain Film Festival who also once hosted a couple of spectacular radio shows out of Hopi on KUYI, Amy Martin a documentary photographer who uses her camera's lens to increase awareness, understanding and compassion across physical and social barriers, and John 'Verm' Sherman a bouldering pioneer, creator of the bouldering V-scale, and a spectacular wildlife photographer who uses his photography to spread awareness on the plight of the endangered California Condor.

Photograph by Amy Martin, part of the Todos Dignos series.

Photograph by John Verm Sherman of one of the critically endangered California Condor .

Saturday, February 9, 2019

There is a terrible practice out there friends that we all need to know about...it is hard to look at, and difficult to stomach, but important to shine a spotlight on it so that we can try to change things.

They are called Wildlife Killing Contests, and chances are they are happening on public lands near you. Each year thousands of coyotes, foxes, bobcats, prairie dogs, crows, and even wolves are targeted in these horrific events where contestants win prizes and awards for killing the animals. These contests are largely un-monitored by state and federal wildlife agencies, and it is up to folks like you and advocates like our great guest Betsy Klein to put a stop to them.

Betsy, who is the founder of I AM WOLF NATION, and co-founder of Plan B to Save Wolves, educates us on what these killing contests are, the misinformation given for their existence, and shares with us how to best assist in the effort to ban wildlife killing contests in Arizona, and in your neck of the woods.

The end result of a horrific contest (photo courtesy of Southwest Environmental Center)

Also on the program, micro-trash and the impacts on wildlife, lead-poisoning among one of the most periled species on the Plateau; the California Condor, and something positive you can do to assist birds during the cold months courtesy of our resident forager extraordinaire Ashley Doyle.